Dictionary of Statistics & Methodology: A Nontechnical Guide for the Social Sciences

In this newly updated Fourth Edition, new terms are defined, new synonyms are included, and both are illustrated with new graphics. Growth in the fields of statistics and methodology has mandated these inclusions. The number of definitions and illustrations has grown from about 2,400 in the third edition to about 2,800 in this one, an increase of around 16 percent. While some entries have been shortened and obsolete ones have been deleted, which helped make room for the new entries, comparatively few terms from the earlier editions have been deleted. The importance of classic terms persists even as new techniques and the terms describing them are invented. Finally, the suggestions for further reading have been updated and a new section on Useful Websites on Statistics and Methodology has been added.

About the Author :
W. Paul Vogt is Emeritus Professor of Research Methods and Evaluation at Illinois State University where he won both teaching and research awards. He specializes in methodological choice and program evaluation and is particularly interested in ways to integrate multiple methods. His other books include: Tolerance & Education: Learning to Live with Diversity and Difference (Sage Publications, 1998); Quantitative Research Methods for Professionals (Allyn & Bacon, 2007); Education Programs for Improving Intergroup Relations (coedited with Walter Stephan, Teachers College Press, 2004). He is also editor of four 4-volume sets in the series, Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods: Selecting Research Methods (2008); Data Collection (2010); Quantitative Research Methods (2011); and, with Burke Johnson, Correlation and Regression Analysis (2012).His most recent publications include the coauthored When to Use What Research Design (2012) and Selecting the Right Analyses for Your Data: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2014). Burke Johnson is a professor in the Professional Studies Department at the University of South Alabama. His PhD is from the REMS (research, evaluation, measurement, and statistics) program in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. He also has graduate degrees in psychology, sociology, and public administration, which have provided him with a multidisciplinary perspective on research methodology. He was guest editor for a special issue of Research in the Schools focusing on mixed research (available online at www.msera.org/rits_131.htm) and completed a similar guest editorship for the American Behavioral Scientist. He was an associate editor of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. Burke is first author of Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches (Sage, 2014, 5th edition); second author of Research Methods, Design, and Analysis (Pearson, 2014, 12th edition); coeditor (with Sharlene Hesse-Biber) of The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry (2015); coeditor (with Paul Vogt) of Correlation and Regression Analysis (2012); and associate editor of The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2009).  

Review :
Do you teach evaluation, research methods, or statistics, or need to teach some key concepts to evaluation stakeholders? Are you in grad school and just learning social science research methods? This handy guide is a great resource for instructors and students alike, as it offers both definitions and relevant, understandable examples. Are you a visual learner? The book also features dozens of easy-to-interpret charts, tables, graphs, and figures.